Winter Park neighbors glad sex offenders moved

WINTER PARK -- After enduring months of loud honks, shouted expletives and picketers on their front sidewalk, two convicted sex offenders moved out of their rental home.

The yard signs with arrows that pointed to where the two men lived were gone Friday, and neighbors breathed a sigh of relief that their children are no longer "under lock down."

"Everyone's thrilled," said Barry Render, a Rollins College professor. "We were victorious, but it doesn't feel like a victory. It was just an aggravating three months."

Neighbors were alerted by police shortly after the two men, both convicted sex offenders, moved into the small home on Howell Branch Road in February.

Almost immediately, they began a campaign to drive the men out and at one point grew so desperate that they even protested at the Longwood home of the two men's landlord.

The landlord, Noemi Ruiz, sold the house, and the two men, who remain on probation, moved to an assisted-living facility in Orlando, said Robby Cunningham, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

Burnice Baxley, 64, and Michael Smith, 62, told reporters last month that they remained holed up in the house, unable to leave except for the grocery store and medical appointments because of the protests. They could not be reached for comment Friday.

Neighbors, though, said they feared for the safety of students who walk past the home on their way to Dommerich Elementary and Maitland Middle schools.

Baxley has been arrested more than 20 times, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records. In 1990, he was convicted of a lewd and lascivious act against a child under 16.

Smith was arrested more than 50 times and convicted of fondling a child in 1989, records show.

Baxley, who uses a wheelchair, told the Sentinel that he suffers from multiple sclerosis and that Smith has Parkinson's disease.

"I think in their younger days they were very, very dangerous because of the offenses they committed," Winter Park police Lt. Wayne Farrell said. "I think with age and health problems, the threat probably decreased."